Now you know me….I hardly ever get political on this blog because….well….there are plenty of other people out there who can do it better then I can. However this morning’s Phnom Penh Post is awash with glowing examples of just how high the muck in this country still runs.

Awarded for Excellence in the field of Drug Distribution

Muck # 1 ; The Secretary General of the National Authority for Combating Drugs was detained for questioning by national police on Tuesday, on the same day that anticorruption officials announced they were preparing to prosecute the former police chief of Banteay Meanchey province in a drug-related case. Moek Dara, the secretary general of the NACD and director of the anti-drug crime department at the Ministry of Interior, was “summoned for interrogation” and “detained under supervision” along with an unnamed anti-drug police officer from Siem Reap province, Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak said. In the usual displays of dumbassery ( thanks Tommy ! ) and avoidance that followed the following statements were made;

“I am sorry, but I cannot make any conclusions or evaluate his work because I am below him. Only top-level officials can make such conclusions,” said Meas Virith, deputy secretary general of the NACD.

Neak Yuthea, director of the department of legislation, education and rehabilitation at the NACD, also declined to comment on the case. “I am terribly sorry, but I cannot talk about his interrogation because it is beyond my capacity,” he said.

Muck # 2 ; BRIGADIER General arrested this week for possessing illegal weapons faced similar charges in 2001 but was never brought to trial, national military police commander Sao Sokha said yesterday. Samith Virak, deputy director of the materials and technology department at the defence ministry, was arrested at his home on Monday. Police at the scene said he was under investigation for “other issues” in addition to the weapons charge, but declined to elaborate. Sao Sokha said yesterday that Samith Virak was also arrested in September 2001 on suspicion of involvement with a group called the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, which staged a terrorist attack in 2000 in Phnom Penh, firing guns and rockets at the Ministry of Defence and the Council of Ministers. Struth.

and finally…..my absolute favourite today ;

Its not corruption if everyone is doing it !

Muck # 3 : Ten tycoons have asked permission to resign their government posts following the introduction of new rules requiring senior officials to disclose their assets to anti-graft authorities, an official said on Tuesday.

Sieng Borath, deputy president of the Anticorruption Unit, said that the businessmen – which included senators, members of parliament and advisors to senior officials – tendered their resignations when asset declarations became mandatory at the start of this month.

He did not name names, and emphasised that those reportedly involved were not resigning in an attempt to cover up ill-gotten gains, but were instead afraid they might accidentally leave some of their many assets off the declaration form.

“An oknha [tycoon], he has his legitimate job. There is nothing involved with corruption, but he finds it difficult because of his many assets,” Sieng Borath said in a speech on asset declarations at the Ministry of Information on Tuesday. “The resignation doesn’t mean that he is corrupt, but that he finds it difficult to include those assets, that he might forget.” DUMBASSERY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Under the Kingdom’s new Law on Anti-corruption, as many as 100,000 senior government officials will be required to declare their assets to the ACU by the end of next month.

When contacted on Tuesday, two tycoons holding government posts said they would not resign in the face of the new regulations. “What the state requires us to do, we must do that. If we resign, it means that we have a problem,” said Chea Chamroeun, an oknha and parliamentarian from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. Yin Sovanny, an adviser to Senate President Chea Sim, agreed resignations could be construed as a sign of guilt. “For me, there is no problem. It is not necessary to resign because we have not done anything [illegal],” he said.

—————————–

So in summation let me see if I got this right ;

The Head of Cambodia’s equivalent of the DEA has been detained for questioning over …..ahem……”something to do with drugs”.

A Brigadier General who previously launched an armed terrorist attack on the Government but escaped arrest for that has now been arrested for hoarding weapons

and

Cambodia’s Ohkna’s are resigning in droves because a new law requires them to declare their assets and many are worried they will forget to list some of them because they have so many of them !